


Asphyxia

by akire_yta



Series: prompt ficlets [578]
Category: Thunderbirds
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-21
Updated: 2018-10-21
Packaged: 2019-08-05 11:30:33
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 588
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16367057
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/akire_yta/pseuds/akire_yta
Summary: preludeinz  asked:Young!John vs decompression sickness after airlock training with his Dad, plz and thank you ♥️





	Asphyxia

“Just keep breathing, John.”

Jeff sounds calm, but strapped in diagonally back, behind the empty co-pilot’s seat, John can see over the edge of the oxygen mask how tightly Jeff is gripping the yoke.

He wants to apologize, but if he opens his mouth he may just puke, from the way his head is spinning or from the pain in his joints, he can’t sort it out any more.  

Everything is fuzzy, but the way dad’s holding the controls so tight sticks out in the haze of the cockpit.  John wants to hold on too, but his fingers are throbbing, and it’s just easier to stare at the way Jeff is squeezing the controls.

The face mask is cutting into his cheeks, along the bridge of his nose, and John suddenly wants it  _off_.  

“John!” Jeff’s voice is booming, and John winces, flinching into his seat. “Leave it on.”

If John had more strength, he might have argued.  But everything hurts and his head is marshmallows and the engines are screaming and the cockpit feels hot.

He’s not aware he’s closed his eyes until he feels dad’s big, still-rough hands on his cheek, resettling the mask.  “And this is why we breathe pure oxygen whenever we go out the airlock, kiddo,” he murmurs.  Behind him, the sky has turned from black to blue, the autopilot blinking a garish red. John can feel gravity clawing at his aching joints.  “Why didn’t you tell me you’d not done that step? You know better than to break protocol.”

John eyes keep fluttering, blue and black, red and blue.  He’s leaning into dad’s hand without even thinking, chasing the one thing that doesn’t hurt.  “We’ve got…the schedule…we had a plan….”

“You’re going to be an astronaut, John.” And even full of marshmallow and hurt, John smiles at the pride he hears there.  “That means you’ve got to use your judgement.  If we wanted mindless following a schedule, we’d send up robots. But I’m not sending some dumb bot, I’m sending you. So I won’t be mad if you’re running behind task, as long as you’re safe. There’s no margin for error, John.  Tell me you know that.  We’re astronauts.  We don’t rush, and we don’t panic, and we don’t do stupid shit.”

John tries to follow the rattling string words, but it’s hard, so hard all of a sudden to concentrate.  “I…yeah…I just wanted…you’re my….”

“Your Dad, yeah.” Jeff’s fingers push his hair back, tilt his face up for inspection.  “So you should listen when I say….”

“Hero.”  John coughs, almost choking to get the word out; pure oxygen always left a metallic tang on his tongue that he couldn’t explain.  “I can’t let you….”

“John.”  This time, Jeff’s tone is quiet, but it hits just as hard as before.  He bows his head, a tiny shake of his chin that John is in no state to decode.  But his fingers scrunch in John’s hair, scraping his scalp, holding him steady while everything else is spinning.  “Just..just breathe, okay, kiddo.  Just breathe.”

John isn’t sure he imaging the kiss to his forehead, if it was some fevered imagining while locked in the hyperbaric chamber just off the runway Jeff has cleared for their crash back to earth.  But John feels its echo every time he picks up his suit’s helmet, and he pauses just a moment to remember feeling safe regardless before he locks it into place and asks EOS to cycle the airlock once more.


End file.
